Managers always are. But, just go to work on time. Is this the biggest issue in your life? Piffle! I never would hire a person who worries so much about trivialities.

How much are you making? My wife has 30 years of IT experience, and she needs a job, and I am sure she could do your job in a blindfold with both hands tied behind her back.

If you were good, you would be staying late more often than you show up late, and they would love your work. Are you any good?

Your bosses don't need reasons for how they run things. As in most other aspects of life, shit roles down hill in the workplace. Toe the line or get the fuck out. Or, make yourself so valuable to the company that you gain some leverage.

On another note, hating 20-year-old art prodigies because you will never be one is the height of childishness. You don't want to call your art a "hobby" because our culture has taught us that everyone is special. This is simply not true. If you can't be exceptional at your hobby, then be exceptional at your job, and then maybe you'll find a healthy balance.

I'm an old hippie and have never had a problem getting to work on time, I'm invariably early, your mindless bigotry is noted.

LW, your art is your avocation, what you do for a living is your vocation. If you try to make your avocation your vocation there is an excellent chance you will end up hating it.

You might try getting some sort of job where you can telecommute.

I think you know this, but the problem isn't that your mangers are uptight, it's that you fundamentally don't like the work environment. That's fine, most of us don't. But most people find a way to deal with it, while others are forced to drop out of cubicle life. You may need to drop out. There's no shame in that.

As for getting to work on time thing. Yeah, you probably do have a disorder. I can't get up early in the morning either. On the whole I've been lucky enough to find jobs that let me get to work a bit later, but the few times I've had 8am requirements, I've felt jet-lagged every day. This isn't laziness, it's genetic. You are not alone.

Know your limits, and work within them. Tell your boss you have a sleep disorder, and you need to shift your work schedule slightly to come in at 9am (or even 10am). You will eventually destroy your health if you don't get enough sleep at the hours when you need it. And no job is worth that.

...could be delayed maturity disorder.

As I was explaining (for the 10th time) to my teenager yesterday, the number one most basic requirement of any job is show up on time. You can do a good job, but if you are always late they will only remember the late part.

You can call the boss uptight, but I guarantee that all your "friends" who manage to haul their butts into the office on time in spite of their own off-hour interests do not love seeing you saunter in at whatever time works for your well being.

If you think you have a sleep disorder by all means see a doctor. But don't feed your boss a line of bull about it as Cary suggests. Instead, own up to your ongoing difficulty with arriving on time, apologize, vow to do better, and do it.

IT can lend itself to at-home or freelance project work. Maybe this would suit you a lot better. Are there any companies that have employees working from home? While you try to hang onto the position you have now why not start looking for something like that, which truly does offer the scheduling flexibility you seek.

And I agree with the poster who mentioned staying late and having them love your work. These are the people who earn flexibility.

You seem to imply in your letter that you expect nonprofits to be less uptight. This is almost never the case. People who work at nonprofits generally care enough about the mission to compensate for lower payrates, and can be more intense about jobs not being just a job. You may do better in a enormous corporation, where individual cogs are far from the people who really profit, and nobody you would talk to on a day-to-day basis gets worked up about screwing the big boss out of 15 minutes of your time.

Sorry, I just re-read your article and noticed another important detail: you are a temp. High level temp-to-hire to be sure, but that means that the client site is paying your temp agency an hourly rate for your services. Of course your hours are going to be more important to them than the tasks you complete. If you come in ten minutes late, that's ten minutes less they have to pay the agency for.

You mention that the full-time staff comes in at 10 am as they please. It may be that once (if) you get hired on salary, things will get much better.

Grow up, get to work on time, and advance far enough up the ladder that you can come in when you want. You have to earn that privilege, just like the rest of us.

I'm going to try to be somewhat sympathetic, because it sounds like you really could have a sleep disorder. But it also sounds like you want people to make special provisions for you just because you can't seem to handle a normal work place.

You talk about how everyone is sooooo uptight! Uptight because they want you to come into work on time? They're not uptight; they're normal. I understand that punctuality can seem like an arbitrary rule, especially if there are 'no emergencies' before 8:30 am, but guess what? This is how the majority of jobs are. A work place is not a democracy. They are PAYING YOU to work there. Repeat, they are PAYING YOU. So if you still want to get paid, you best suck it up and come in when you're supposed to.

The fact that you were pissy with your 'uptight' manager because he pointed out that you're late sometimes reminds me of so many whiny people that I have supervised, who go on and on about what a great job they're doing and how underappreciated they are, yet can't be expected to perform the simplest things without whining. Do you want respect for your work? Then start respecting the people who are paying you to do it.

How you have not learned all this yet, I have no idea. You say you would just like to come in at 9, but my guess is that, even if you started a 9-5 job, you wouldn't be able to make it in at 9, either. So why don't you start your own business? Start doing freelance IT work, miss deadlines and show up late for appointments, and see how things go. But you'll be making your own hours, right?